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Article

30 Jan 2012

Author:
John Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister in Guardian [UK]

Legal aid bill: why the media's silence?

New legislation [in the Legal aid bill] would stop people taking on big corporations...the second part of the bill, which is nothing less than a cack-handed attempt to change the legal system to benefit large corporations when they are being sued...[It] is going to affect a lot of people...[including:] victims of human rights abuses like those in the Trafigura case, and victims of media corporations' desire to print half-truths and invade privacy. Yet the same part of the bill has been sold to a willing media as an attempt to reduce motor insurance premiums. [also refers to BBC, British Sky Broadcasting, Guardian, Daily Mail (owned by Daily Mail and General Trust), Daily Express (owned by Express Newspapers)]